V for Vendetta
Mar. 19th, 2006 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulI had about 26 ideas for subjects lines for this post - A for Awesome, B for Bitchin', K for Kickass, X for Xylophone (because X is always for Xylophone) but I decided that we'd probably see enough of that going around. hehe.
Anyhoo, 'V for Vendetta' was surprisingly good! I'll admit, I'd set my expectations low, even after it his the 75% mark on Rotten Tomatoes. There were just so many ways it could have gone wrong. But I think it stayed pretty true to the comic.
Now, for those of you that have not read the comic, I can tell you the basics - it was a reaction to the Margaret Thatcher era in England in the 1980s, taken to the extreme if the conservative party had their way. Of course, being that the majority of the audience will not be aware of the political climate in England during the 1980s, the movie gets an update. I think it worked, though its interesting that a chunk of the blame is pointed at the US. They keep referring to "America's War" when they talk about the big war that screwed up the world. Someone mentioned that by doing this, the movie starts to become the propaganda that V fights against. But I didn't feel that way. It's an alternate vision of the future and to make it work you have to take something going on now and extrapolate that to it's extreme. And I think our war on terror and the religion right are big enough in the public consciousness to make it work.
As I said before, Hugo Weaving was AMAZING! From what I understand, the original actor cast to play 'V' quit after discovering he would never get to show his face (not sure if that's 100% fact though). Anyway, Weaving had to act in the mask the whole time - the Guy Fawkes mask covers his entire face, hides his eyes, AND slightly muffles his voice. And yet he was a real person under there. I think I liked movie 'V' more than comic book 'V' because he was alive and not just a mask on paper. Natalie Portman's accent slipped a few times, but her acting was good. Definately shows what Lucas missed out on, she just needs some direction...and possibly SETS to act with and she can hold her own next to Hugo Weaving.
There are many other British actors in this film that will have you going "OH THAT GUY!" I recognized the detective but can't tell you why....John Hurt plays the prime minister...Stephen Frye plays a TV personality! I adore him anyway, but he was good in this, for what little bit he had.
Oh, and Benny Hill fans will get an extra giggle.
I don't want to give too much away, it's a very involved movie with lots of little bits of plot going on. I think that's what keeps it interesting. You have the big plot revealed in the first 10 minutes, then you find out about the specifics of V's vendetta, you have Eveys' story, the detectives trying to figure it all out, and the government reacting to all of this. It really kept the movie going, in my opinion. If you can keep track of that many plots then you should be okay (I heard a few people saying that they were confused while leaving the theater...)
The little Guy Fawkes history lesson went well too, they pretty much just told you the basics of what happened, what happened to Fawkes the person, and what he was turned in to by the people, and that's what V is all about, getting beyond the person and focusing on images and the meanings that we as humans give people and things.
It's also a movie of fantastic images - all of which gave me goosebumps
V conducting his "music"
V toppling the dominoes while the detective explains it all
the little girl in glasses spray painting a 'V' over the goverment signs
Evey getting her head shaved
and of course - the finale, so to speak, along with Evey's speech
Yes, it was good. It's not the best movie ever, I'm not going to build a shrine to it or anything (though I might make some icons) but it's definatly worth seeing. And, at the risk of sounding like a presenter at the Academy Awards, it's worth seeing in a darkened movie theater with a large group of people so you can hear everyone react together....
unless of course they have a dirty screen like Arundel Mills did, where somehow, something was smeared across the middle portion so that it was very bright in the center and when they had the close ups, people seems to have boogers coming out of their noses...that was a bit distracting...
And see it with a friend because you will want to talk about it afterwards.
Oh, and a side note - Alan Moore is not too fond of hollywood and asked that his name not be put in the movie AT ALL. So it's not, but he can't deny the artists their credit, so that's what it says at the end of the movie "Based on the Graphic Novel drawn by". I also think, though I can't back this up, that one of the characters sorta looks like Moore...but you'll have to decide.
For a picture of Moore and the story of his works and 'V' in particular, check out this article from the NY Times
Anyhoo, 'V for Vendetta' was surprisingly good! I'll admit, I'd set my expectations low, even after it his the 75% mark on Rotten Tomatoes. There were just so many ways it could have gone wrong. But I think it stayed pretty true to the comic.
Now, for those of you that have not read the comic, I can tell you the basics - it was a reaction to the Margaret Thatcher era in England in the 1980s, taken to the extreme if the conservative party had their way. Of course, being that the majority of the audience will not be aware of the political climate in England during the 1980s, the movie gets an update. I think it worked, though its interesting that a chunk of the blame is pointed at the US. They keep referring to "America's War" when they talk about the big war that screwed up the world. Someone mentioned that by doing this, the movie starts to become the propaganda that V fights against. But I didn't feel that way. It's an alternate vision of the future and to make it work you have to take something going on now and extrapolate that to it's extreme. And I think our war on terror and the religion right are big enough in the public consciousness to make it work.
As I said before, Hugo Weaving was AMAZING! From what I understand, the original actor cast to play 'V' quit after discovering he would never get to show his face (not sure if that's 100% fact though). Anyway, Weaving had to act in the mask the whole time - the Guy Fawkes mask covers his entire face, hides his eyes, AND slightly muffles his voice. And yet he was a real person under there. I think I liked movie 'V' more than comic book 'V' because he was alive and not just a mask on paper. Natalie Portman's accent slipped a few times, but her acting was good. Definately shows what Lucas missed out on, she just needs some direction...and possibly SETS to act with and she can hold her own next to Hugo Weaving.
There are many other British actors in this film that will have you going "OH THAT GUY!" I recognized the detective but can't tell you why....John Hurt plays the prime minister...Stephen Frye plays a TV personality! I adore him anyway, but he was good in this, for what little bit he had.
Oh, and Benny Hill fans will get an extra giggle.
I don't want to give too much away, it's a very involved movie with lots of little bits of plot going on. I think that's what keeps it interesting. You have the big plot revealed in the first 10 minutes, then you find out about the specifics of V's vendetta, you have Eveys' story, the detectives trying to figure it all out, and the government reacting to all of this. It really kept the movie going, in my opinion. If you can keep track of that many plots then you should be okay (I heard a few people saying that they were confused while leaving the theater...)
The little Guy Fawkes history lesson went well too, they pretty much just told you the basics of what happened, what happened to Fawkes the person, and what he was turned in to by the people, and that's what V is all about, getting beyond the person and focusing on images and the meanings that we as humans give people and things.
It's also a movie of fantastic images - all of which gave me goosebumps
V conducting his "music"
V toppling the dominoes while the detective explains it all
the little girl in glasses spray painting a 'V' over the goverment signs
Evey getting her head shaved
and of course - the finale, so to speak, along with Evey's speech
Yes, it was good. It's not the best movie ever, I'm not going to build a shrine to it or anything (though I might make some icons) but it's definatly worth seeing. And, at the risk of sounding like a presenter at the Academy Awards, it's worth seeing in a darkened movie theater with a large group of people so you can hear everyone react together....
unless of course they have a dirty screen like Arundel Mills did, where somehow, something was smeared across the middle portion so that it was very bright in the center and when they had the close ups, people seems to have boogers coming out of their noses...that was a bit distracting...
And see it with a friend because you will want to talk about it afterwards.
Oh, and a side note - Alan Moore is not too fond of hollywood and asked that his name not be put in the movie AT ALL. So it's not, but he can't deny the artists their credit, so that's what it says at the end of the movie "Based on the Graphic Novel drawn by". I also think, though I can't back this up, that one of the characters sorta looks like Moore...but you'll have to decide.
For a picture of Moore and the story of his works and 'V' in particular, check out this article from the NY Times
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Date: 2006-03-19 08:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-20 12:09 am (UTC)